Ola Melzig - The man behind the world’s largest scene

Ola: Well…“fake it till you make it” is usually a good credo for us production managers (says Ola and smiles). In business terms my job is to manage large arena events, live broadcast productions and shows in all conceivable aspects. I see myself as the spider in the web for taking a production from idea to reality. This involves pulling together all dimensions including the artistic part, sound, lighting, video, special effects and all the technology and people required to make it happen. I make sure everyone knows the expectations and are part of a good workable plan we all can follow. Then there are things like budgets and deadlines that dictate our approach and how much time we have to prepare. 

Peter: How do you characterize a large event?

Ola: All events have some sort of limitations of how much money they can cost as well as the physical constraints of the arena we use. One of the largest ones I have managed so far was the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow 2009.  This is also the largest indoor arena production ever made and had a total budget of 50 million Euros ($68 million).  The lighting and stage piece alone cost some 9 million Euros. The artistic requirements were set at a very high level and this costs a lot of money to realize. For example, we contracted Cirque du Soleil for the opening act which made it very special and unique.  We also use a lot of equipment for large productions. Just to give you an idea, the power generators we used in Moscow consumed 22,000 liters of diesel fuel every day during the 50 days it took us to prepare and finally do the show, and I can tell you that we did not receive the EU ecology award that year. Another constraint is that all arenas have weight limitations for how many tons of lamps, special effects and other equipment you can hang in ceilings and place on stage. There’s a lot of engineering involved in these things.

Peter: What are you working on right now?

Ola:  I just completed the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in India where I was the Technical Director. Right now I’m preparing the production of the annual Nobel Prize award dinner. It’s always held in the Stockholm City Hall in December and I’ve produced this one six times before. In the spring I will be busy with the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest in Dusseldorf. This will be my 9^th Eurovision Final since my first in Stockholm 2000.  I am also having discussions about the 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony in London. This is of course a dream project for someone in my profession. It’s the mother of all events and has about 350 million live viewers.

Peter: How many people in the world do what you do?

Ola: I would say we are a pretty small group of about 10-15 people who do these very large events. Although we compete for the projects we are also good friends who collaborate and help each other out. We share a love for what we do and are probably not your typical business people. Most of our contracts are handshake agreements and we don’t use a lot of attorneys. It seems to work for us though.

Peter: In previous articles you have been described as “larger than life” “funny” and “flamboyant”, but how would you describe yourself and       your management style?  

Ola: Production managers are often described as loud red faced people who scream a lot. I am the opposite. For me it’s about being secure in what I do and learning how to manage all kinds of situations. It’s very important that my crew is happy and I spend a lot of time making sure this is the case on all levels. I started my own career doing the not so fancy jobs like doing dishes in the catering service and pulling cables. Everybody knows that I have also done what they do and that brings a lot of mutual respect. I never need to raise my voice because I understand when people have a rough day and they know that I’m doing what I can to make their work as smooth as possible. I’m also very accessible to all team members and I’m not too fond of hierarchies. I probably have a good dose of a Swedish approach to management and for me my style is what has made me successful in my industry.